*Official* Sri Lankan Domestic Cricket Thread

I have been meaning to start this thread for a while, but haven't had the time. Looking at our similar thread, i.e Bangladesh, you pretty much have to keep it going. But with the recent return and Prabeth Nissanka, one of the best fast bowler Sri Lanka ever produced. I thought it was a good chance to keep track of his performances through a thread like this.

Were are into the later stages the Super 8 stage of our re-vamped FC competition, Premier League. Here the table ATM:

In Sri Lanka there is basically three big clubs in SSC, Colts, Tamil Union. Bloomfield and Nondescripts are catching up pretty fast and brought in a lot International players. Colombo CC have been the big surprise packets this season, but they have Kapu at their club and few other good young crickets.

The man, the mountain, the Mathews. The greatest all rounder since Keith Miller. (Y)

Current Round - Stumps Day One Scores

Jehan Mubrak also plays for Colombo and he was dismissed for 17. Vandort been batting at four all season for Colombo for some reason. For Sinhalese Lokuarachchi has 1/48 of 17. There other big name bowler Dammika Prasad, former ODI player, has 0/41(11), he bowled 2nd change though.

Bloomfield are quite light for batsmen with quite a few away with the national team, only Ian Daniel and Thilina Kandamby (their captain) are the big name batsmen left. Weerakoon made the most of their light batting line up taking 5/50. Thilan Thushara took 2 wickets, with Angelo Matthews and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara taking a wicket a piece. These days both Matthews and Pushpakumara are playing more as batting all rounders.

Kalavitgoda former Sri Lankan Test Batsmen went after Nissanka, but he took the important wicket of Warnapura for 19, to finish with 1/24 off 3. Nissanka bowled 2nd change as he did in his last two games he played this season. He started as a change bowler for Bloomfield, before he made his national debut.

Moors 7/400 (Perera 74, Dilhara 178*, Hearth 55*, L Fernando 3/41

Well today was the day that young Sri Lanka all rounder Dilhara Lokuhettige came of age as a batsmen with a brillant 178 not out. For a while he has been talked about as a potential all rounder for Sri Lanka, but with a career average 21 and only one century to his name before this his never really delivered with the bat. But all that changed today with his first ever 150 batting down at 7, his innings included 17 fours and 10 sixes. Now he just needs to find some consistency with both bat and bowl.

By the looks of it not the greatest pitch in the world with batsmen struggling in both teams. Ranga Dais continued his good season with the ball taking a 6-fer, he played for Sri Lanka A before. Lanka De Silva former Sri Lanka keeper batsmen top scored for Tamil and got them close to first innings points. Former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dharshana Gamage has been the pick of the Rangama fast bowlers with fellow Sri Lanka international Kaushalya Weeraratne (1/18 off 8) supporting him well with some defensive bowling. Tamil Union look on target for 1st innings points buts its anyones game.

Nah i haven't watched him, but i've been keeping a pretty close eye on him since he started playing with Sri Lanka A. Looks like a quality keeper batsmen. Also from memory he made 155 and the young SSC opener Tharanga Paranavitana made 232 - scorecard

BTW have you watched Silva keep, if so how good is he as a keeper alone?

Super 8s Match Reports

In a low scoring match Tamil Union greater depth in batting and their ability to get more starts provided to be the difference. Rangama only had 3 batsmen pass the 20 mark, compared to Tamil Union's six. Ranga Dias was the the pick of Tamil Union bowlers with 9/105 for match figures. He also contributed with the bat with handy scores of 24 and 18. Kaushalya Weeraratne was by far the pick of the Rangama players scoring 82 runs with the bat in the 2nd innings to give Rangama a chance and taking four wickets. Weeraratne continues to improve with the bat taking his average from the low teens a couple seasons ago to mid 20s. Needs to average near 30 to really push for a spot as an all rounder though.

A match for the Moors all rounder and the coming of age for a Nondescripts all rounder. The game started with a brillant double hundred from Dilhara Lokuhettige, an innings that included 22 fours and 11 sixes. Then it came the turn of Anil Rideegammanagedera who scored his maiden hundred, a score of 125 in the 2nd innings for Moors to set Nondescripts a massive 488 runs for a win. The final innings was was probably significant hundred from former Under 19 all rounder Kosela Kulasekara who also hit his madien hundred, 129 which included 10 fours and 7 sixes. Ranagana Herath probably ended up winning them the match with his 71 to support Dilhara and his 9 wickets for the match.

A pretty easy win in the end for the Colts thanks largely to their 2nd innings bowling efforts of Thushara and Pushpakumara. Thushara should his ability to use his extra pace to knock over the Bloomfield top order, some rate him as a faster bowler then Malinga. But his had worse no ball problems then Dilhara Fernando. A big first innings performance for Weerakoon as well with a 5-fer with the ball and 90 runs coming in as night-watchmen.

This match is leading towards a draw as Colombo seem only interested in batting practise, as they are already in the semis. Probably a good think with Kapugedera 22 not out. Vandort got his first hundred of the season batting at his new postion of No 4. I found out that Colombo have been considering dropping him down the order for a long time, due to his problems with the swinging ball. But with young all rounder Nisal Randika his feet with the bat lately they decided to take the punt and drop him down the order. The form of Randika has been the real talking point of this match, scoring two 50s in his first match as opener this season and taking a 6-fer with the ball. There are talks that he could be pushing for a national spot as the 2nd spinner and out and out all rounder. But probably needs to get his batting average around 30 its mid 20s ATM. His also yet to score a FC hundred, would have been gutted at missing out of it by 3 runs.

Just so you guys have an idea of who plays for who, so you know who to look out in the reports i'll post all the team full strength XIs. There been a lot of transfers in the last couple seasons, with more clubs getting a bit more money, so the side are getting pretty even. Hopefully this even comp and potential better standard results in a better competion and greater depth for Sri Lankan Cricket.

It should be noted that there are two other bigish clubs in Sri Lanka, Chilaw Marians and Sebastianites who are fighting for promotion back to Tier A. They have some big names like Chamara Silva, Prassana Jayawardene, Dinusha Fernando, Charitha Buddhika, Gayan Wijekoon, Hasantha Fernando, Mahela Udawatte etc. I'll try post the results of that series when the matches are finished.

Interesting finish to the match between Colombo and Sinhalese with Colombo declaring 597 runs ahead after Kapugedera smashed his 2nd 50 of the game. Then Mubarak and Randika combined to run through a weak looking Sinhalese batting line up. Not sure what that means to the table but i think SSC might miss out on the finals.

Well the big story from the P&R Group was the minnow bashing of Prassana Jayawardene who got his HS with 166* against a hopeless Panadura attack. In that match former Sri Lanka quick Dinusha Fernando also got a fifty and a couple wickets. Once again showing his bowler who get picked for his batting, mind you he bats at 4 for Sebastianites.

Mahela Udawatte got a pair of 50s for Chilaw, with Gayan Wijekoon in the runs. Hasantha Fernando took seven wickets for the match, proving his minnow ability that has got him some decent FC stats.

In other news Tillakaratne Dilshan's younger bother, Tillakaratne Sampath, got his first FC hundred for Badureliya in their win over Army.

With one match to be played it looks like a 3 horse race between Chilaw, Badureliya and Sebestianites for the two promotion spots.

With the re-vamped competition ther will be no semis or finals, so Colombo CC are the champions and were the best team by a long way this season. Colts finished runners up.

Unless they change the struture of championship again then the top 6 teams in the P&R group qualify for next season Div 1. That means its basically a battle between Saracens, SL Army and Panadura for regulation. 14 sides to too much for competitive Div One, but you can't do much when there is 21 sides and they want to help the lower sides improve not increase the gap. It does seem though ever season there is another competitive sides that comes through, this season was Lankan CC, so hopefully they can keep on improving next season in Div One.